Steve Cortes investigates the rapidly growing trend of foreign students attending American universities in huge numbers, including 6,000 Chinese nationals enrolled in the University of Illinois, and asks how long U.S. taxpayers will continue to subsidize public institutions that exclude their kids in favor of foreign nationals. See more from Cortes on Substack. “It seems to me then that we have hundreds of thousands of foreign students taking spots. And even if they’re full pay out-of-state applicants to these places and students there, they are still being subsidized by US taxpayers, significantly subsidized, including at private schools,” Cortes said. “So they are being subsidized by US taxpayers to go to American schools.” “They are, in many cases, taking highly coveted spots that American students would like to be taking. And then once they graduate, they’re doing jobs that plenty of Americans can do, but because they’re foreigners and because many of them will work cheaper because of their visas, they’re effectively replacing American workers,” he said. “Back in 2000, the U of I had 37 Chinese students. But now, our schools are overrun,” he said. “Foreign students are displacing American kids, plain and simple.” “Talented American high schoolers — kids getting near-perfect ACTs and SATs, with 4.0 grade point averages, in advanced placement classes. Those American academic stars are being denied spots at the public universities that their families have supported for generations,” he said. “Why? Because these schools chase full tuition from wealthy international students, often recruited by professional firms.” “Many of these student applications are fraudulent — especially the Chinese ones, many of whom submit fake test scores and fabricated credentials. That’s not speculation, that’s a fact.” “A 35 ACT score is outstanding, right? And a 4.3 GPA is better than an A average, unweighted, at a top high school. You almost can’t do better. I mean, what more was this young person supposed to do to get into the University of Illinois?” “Marc Andreessen, who built billion-dollar companies from a modest start in rural Wisconsin, got his shot at the U of I. So did Larry Ellison, who went to Illinois and then went on to become the richest man in the world,” Cortes said. “Would they even get admitted today? Andreessen doesn’t think so.” Andreessen said: “The intersection of DEI and immigration has really warped, I think, our perceptions of high-skilled immigration over the last 50 years. You look at the foreign enrollment rates of the top universities, which went from like two or three or four percent 50 years ago, to 27 or 30 or 50 percent. There’s been a massive transformation of who gets educated — who even gets admitted through affirmative action/DEI.” “And this goes straight to the political divide in this country,” Adreessen said. “If you’ve got a smart kid, and you think you’re gonna get them into a top university in this country, you are fooling yourself. There is this really fundamental question, which is what level of untapped talent exists in this country that a combination of DEI and immigration has basically cut out of the loop for the last 50 years? And how long can we sell this story to everybody in the Midwest and the South that says, sorry, your kids are SOL.” “These foreigners are not just taking classes, they’re taking your kids’ seats and eventually taking their jobs, too,” Steve Cortes said. “Your child worked hard, played by the rules, crushed the tests, but gets turned away? While an unvetted foreign national with a fake transcript takes their place? This isn’t education, it’s displacement by design.” Dr. Steven Kleinschmidt, a professor at Northwestern University, tells Cortes: “You read their letters of application, they have no idea what they’re applying to. At multiple institutions, just people applying for everything, sometimes not even changing the name of the university on the cover letter or how they reference it. I’ve had colleagues at some universities, even in doctoral programs, where the person shows up their first day and they say, hey, it’s nice to meet you. Welcome. And like they they they’re not even able to say hello. I believe there are some segments of the academic credential market where institutionalized corruption and being able to bribe test proctors or maybe even the government itself, being the ones that force changes on their transcripts and stuff like that.”
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